All in all, an awful state of affairs for Australia and our democracy. So what is the solution? The way I see it, the various independent online media groups need to get together, pool their resources, and step up to a genuine media alternative to the dregs of Fairfax and Murdoch. Academic institutions engaged in media would also be around the table, as I’d see links with journalism students in the new group.

If you're younger you may not get the significance of this. This was world Internet and media history and Margo was making it. In 2000 there were no comparable models. Not in the New York Times, not in the Washington Post and not even in that stupid bloody British rag that you wretched lefties love so much, the Guardian".- Harry Heidelberg

Equipped with the ethical guidelines for good journalism, there is no reason why citizens with all sorts of expertise and experience can't worm their way into the closed club of media-politics-business and seek and get answers now hidden because the questions are never asked. Their accountability would come from the fact that their reports and pieces are themselves open to scrutiny and corrections from other readers through comments. And that before they become citizen journalists they must earn the trust and respect of other readers and contributors.

I believe:- that there is a vacuum of original, genuine, passionate and accessible debate on the great political, economic and social issues of our time in the mainstream media, despite the desire of thinking Australians in all age groups to read and participate in such debates- that newspapers have lost their connection with the readers they serve- that the future of news media which serves its democratic function to inform, expose and analyse the world around us lies in a collaboration between journalists and readers through independent news media.

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